The vital signs – heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, respiration rate, and pain – communicate important information about the physiological status of the human body. In this six-part course we explore the anatomy and physiology underlying the vital signs so that you will develop a systematic, integrated understanding of how the body functions. Relevant body systems are reviewed including cardiovascular and respiratory, followed by explanations of how the function of these systems affects vital signs. We discuss normal ranges, normal variants, and the mechanisms that underlie changes in the objective measurement of vital signs. The course also includes demonstrations of appropriate techniques for measuring vital signs in yourself and others.
The course is designed for a broad, general audience but will be particularly interesting for individuals working in healthcare, those considering a career as a healthcare professional, lay caregivers, those with an interest in personal health and fitness, or anyone who simply wants to understand how the body functions.

AB

I really enjoyed to the professor and the idea of learning the material with her students. It made me feel as if I was in the classroom learning with them. She broke down the material in a great way.

JC

Jul 05, 2017

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Really enjoyed this course. It was very well taught and I particularly liked the way that it was done within a classroom setting, rather than just the lecturer talking to camera. I also learnt a lot

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Week 1: Pulse/Heart Rate

This week we start our exploration of the vital signs with a look at the heart. We'll study the basic structure of the heart, think about how the heart pumps blood through the body, and learn how clinicians assess and think about heart rate and the pulse.

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Connie B. Scanga, PhD

Practice Professor

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[BLANK_AUDIO]. >> Hi, we're here in the sim lab today. We're going to talk about assessing heart rate and pulse, and we're going to talk a little bit about the difference between the two as well as some places on the body that you can check a pulse. So, thanks for joining us. And, the first thing I want to say is, have you ever checked your own pulse? >> Yeah, I check my carotid pulse after I exercise. >> Same here, I check my radial pulse after I finish dance practice. >> I actually check my radial pulse while I'm running just to make sure I'm staying in a good training level. >> Yeah, so. >> During my run. >> It's very common for people to check their own pulse and it's something that a lot of us do on a pretty regular basis. So it's good to know how to do, but when a healthcare provider is checking your pulse, they are also you know, doing the same as you, counting the heart rate, but they're also thinking and assessing for some other things, so we'll talk a little bit about that today. But, first Jane, can you tell us what is the heart rate? >> Well, the heart rate's the number of time your heart beats per minute. >> Right, and Stacy, can you tell us then, what is the pulse? >> Mm, I think the pulse is when your heart beats, the ventricle ejects blood during systole and makes the artery distend and then during diastole the blood just is flowing regularly, and that's when the artery retracts. >> Right. Great! >> Great explanation! That was good. >> Very good explanation. >> Yeah. >> So >> And it's which kind of arteries have that ability to distend and retract? >> Elastic arteries? >> The elastic arteries, yep. Good job. >> Right, so when we check a pulse, what we're doing is we're pushing against an elastic artery, and we're pushing it against the firm, underlying tissue. So that allows us to feel the pulsations as they run through the blood, the artery or the blood vessel. Do you think that the pulse and the heart rate are always the same? >> Not necessarily. I think in typical people with normal cardiovascular function your heart rate and your pulse rate would be the same. But however, in some patients with like cardiovascular defects they might not have the ability for the heart to pump that strong pulse throughout the rest of the body, which could cause patients to have poor perfusion and to have like a weaker pulse. >> Right. That's great. >> Yes. >> So, typically the heart rate and the pulse, as you said, are exactly the same in a normal person with healthy cardiovascular function. But, if somebody's heart is not able to con, contract strongly enough to create blood flow to the peripheral areas of the body or the, the parts of the body that are far away from the heart then you might not feel a pulsation for every beat of the heart if that heart beat is weak. And also, if there's problems with the arteries if for some reason blood is not flowing through them well, you might not get a pulsation in that artery when you get, when you have a beat in the heart. So, that was a great explanation. So let's talk about some different places that we can check the pulse. The first one that I'll go over is the carotid as we've already talked about and that's located here at the neck. Now typically a healthcare provider won't really be checking the carotid artery we can check it other places. We might sometimes but it's a common one that people do on themselves and you just need to be careful not to put too much pressure, as we mentioned before. The other places that healthcare providers do commonly check are the brachial artery that's here at the antecubital fossa. >> Oh, Megan, I think you might have to explain what the antecubital fossa is. >> Well, that's where the arm bends at the elbow, so right here in this area. The other place on arm that the pulse is commonly check is the radial pulse here, the wrist. And another common place to check the pulse is at the femoral artery, and that's located at the bend of the hip, so where the thigh connects to the body, and if you place two fingers there, you should be able to feel a pulsation. And this is a common assessment to use in pediatrics, and especially with babies. The next place that I'll show is at the foot. So there's two locations here that are commonly checked. The first is the dorsalis pedis, and that's here at the top middle portion of the foot. And the other is the posterior tibial, which is located just below and behind the knob on the, on the ankle. And so these are common pulse assessments if, if somebody has suspected peripheral vascular disease, where the blood is not flowing well through the arteries because you might not be able to feel a pulse in that location if somebody has poor blood flow or you might just feel a very weak pulse. And so, those are the things that we're thinking about when we're checking the pulse in addition to the heart rate. >> And they would be weaker here because these arteries are further away from the heart. They're-. >> Right, and if there's something blocking good blood flow and because it's further away from the heart, correct. [BLANK_AUDIO]